Old Blog

Facebook Vs. Google+

Recently I decided to give up all reservations and give Google+ a try. Normally, I jump on the band wagon of the new social media channels after they've been around for a few years but with G+ it only took me one. Yay for progress! I'm not gonna go all techie on you guys discussing in detail the mechanics behind either site but rather just go over a few things I have noticed about the two and which one is currently winning me over.

On Facebook everyone has hundreds of "friends" right? Because you know someone who knows them or you went to preschool with them twenty something years ago and isn't it just great that you can connect to everyone you've ever crossed paths with?

I mean it's not like you actually have anything in common or will even ever talk to them, they, as are you, are just a number. Aside from your real friends and family members (yeah, that was grandma who liked those pics of you half-naked, tossing a shot of tequila back and then, inevitably passed out...) you don't ever really interact with all 750 of your "friends".

What I learned while using G+ is that it's okay to talk to strangers, in fact you wind up finding people you have more in common with. Thus you actually TALK to the people you have befriended because you have something to say that they want to hear and vice versa. Now before you FB addicts jump all down my throat, know that I too was once just as sucked in as you. I couldn't go more than an hour without checking it, "did anyone like or comment on my latest post? Any new pics up? Did they respond to my message?" I mean i was a fiend until one day I realized that I was posting content I cared about but didn't really intrigue my friends, thus I was always a little let down by a lack of interaction.

With G+ I have found people who like the same things as I, so we comment and like what the other has posted. You can even hang out with them via G+ Hang Outs and have a real conversation. Now what I will give to Facebook is that the posts there are a lot more personal since you tend to be a little more comfortable around people you "know". Still, in my book G+ is the winner.

From the standpoint of an artist, I think G+ also offers you the better audience to showcase what you have to offer. I don't know how many times I posted a poem or a song on Facebook or a link to this very blog only to see maybe one person from FB actually looked at it. Thanks friends. Once I joined G+ and began posting it to the people who actually are interested in what I do I noticed a huge difference. Video views increased, comments began coming in and people were giving me +1's (the equivalent to a like of Facebook). No, I don't have 500 friends on G+ but that makes it even better because I get to build relationships with the people who are there by talking about or interests.

Don't get me wrong, I don't hate Facebook or anything like that, in fact, I still have my page and use it occasionally. But if you want to find me, G+ is where I'm at...Or twitter. What do you guys think? Have any of you actually used G+ yet and if so which do you prefer?